Oakley :)

Christmas came a little early at our house! This is my new favorite thing, Oakley.



Is he not the cutest thing EVER?!

We are so in love with him already and he's only been here for three days. He is the best little thing. He has a really sweet temperament- playful, but not OVERLY playful and snuggles too. He is sleeping all night on the floor beside our bed, no whining or howling. He goes outside to potty every time. He isn't chewing on everything (yet!) and it makes us keep everything off the floor so it doesn't have as many chances to. He's been great for a 10-week-old puppy! He's also HUGE for a 10-week-old puppy :)

Chase (the cat) isn't too sure what to think of him yet, but the rest of us are pretty smitten!

Awesome giveaway!

My friend, Rachel, is doing a blog giveaway that I really love (and really want!). If you go to her blog, she will tell you how to submit to win. The giveaway is an adorable book called I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother by Selina Alko.

The book is about an interracial family who's child is about to be a big brother, and he's wondering what color the new baby will be. How cute is that? She shares that one line in the book says, "Will you be my vanilla bean ice-cream sibling, or super rich double chocolate fudge?" I love it! And I love the idea of reading it to my kids while we wait on #4 to make his/her arrival. It would be great for any interracial or transracial family :)

FEARLESS!

At church we are discussing a series called FEARLESS. I had the opportunity to overcome one of my fears last week and wanted to share that with you, as I did our congregation on Sunday.

Background:
When I was 16, I had driven to Nashville to meet with my pageant coaches. When I left, I stopped to get gas nearby. When I came out of the gas station (this was before "pay at the pump"), a homeless man was standing on the other side of my car. He pulled a knife and demanded the money he had seen me get back from the cashier. He told me to get in the car and follow his directions. I got on the interstate, as he told me too, and drove several miles down the road. Just as I was about to throw myself out of my vehicle (I had seen on Oprah that you were supposed to do that), he told me to take the next exit. I got off the exit and drove down behind these (seemingly) empty warehouse buildings. He then jumped out of my car and took off running.

I told no one.

I think I was afraid my parents would stop letting me drive or take my car away.
Because of this experience, I have struggled with some PTSD- I am terrified of people who are homeless, particularly men (I know that sounds terrible), I hate gas stations, I avoid pumping my own gas at all costs (leave it for my husband to do or when he is with me).


Fast-forward.
Last Tuesday, my purse was stolen out of my car at our home. A checkbook, my debit card, a credit card, pictures of my kids, various resturant/discount cards were all gone. We managed to realize it and close our bank account and credit card account before any monetary damage was done. Not a big deal, just a bit of an inconvenience.

On Wednesday, I had to go downtown for a costume fitting. It was mid-afternoon and I was hungry! Of course, I had no debit or credit card. We NEVER have cash, but I managed to dig around and find $2 in my console. Just as I did, I stopped at a red light. A homeless man approached my window. I took a deep breath and remembered our FEARLESS series.

"For God gave us not a spirit of fearfullness, but of power and love and discipline."
2 Timothy 1:7

I know this.
I rolled down my window and gave him my $2 just as the light turned green. I drove up a block to my destination, only to discover they had moved. I turned around to go back the other direction and was stopped again at the same light. I looked around, but the man was nowhere to be found. Just then, my phone rang. A 16-yr-old girl called to tell me she found all of my stuff (minus the checkbook, debit, and credit card) in the floor at a Kroger in Inglewood (about an hour away from my house). She offered to bring it to me, but we ended up meeting in the middle that night. I got back EVERYTHING else that had been in my wallet. The pictures of my kids, my zoo card, my Sweet Cece's frequent buyer card (woot woot!), insurance cards... EVERYTHING. My new credit and debit cards have already arrived.



Thank you, Jesus for giving me a spirit of power and love and discipline. I don't have to be afraid.

Cale's first day!

Cale Benjamin started school last week!

He goes three times a week to a developmental preschool for children with special needs, along with four "typical" students. He had been seeing a psychologist once a week for the last couple of months, and we have definitely seen some changes already in his communication skills and behavior. He has taken some big steps like going into his class during church (three times now!) and even stayed in there the whole time once! But getting him into the school was the overall goal, that's where we (as in his parents/family, psychologist, pediatrician, SLP, Child Development Specialist, etc.) believe he has the greatest opportunity to grow as a child with autism.

It has been a big adjustment for all of us, but it is going pretty well! We have to get up much earlier to eat breakfast/get him ready and be across town by 7:15, then we come back home and get Layla ready to go to school at 8:40. It is giving me lots of one-on-one time with Brynn, which we both enjoy (not to mention, it is just soooo much easier to get anything done with only one 3-yr-old vs two!). Layla is riding the bus home now so that the twins can sleep in the afternoon and I don't have to wake them and go get her.

Cale asks every day if he is going to school. He LOVES that he gets to get out of the car, while the girls have to stay in at his school. He is even fine with his teacher coming to get him out of the car, as long as he is allowed to wear his backpack instead of her carrying it (he slept with it for three days before he started going!). He has had a couple of rough days in his class, but yesterday he sat in circle for the first time! He apparently did not keep his hands and feet to himself, and he didn't participate, but he DID sit in a chair in the circle and it's only his fifth day there- I think that's pretty good! He has also been eating his entire lunch before the kids with trays even sit down. Ha! We had to make a few changes in his lunchbox :)

If you ask him if he likes school, he will tell you NO... but trust me when I tell you how excited he is to get up and go each morning and he likes when I go through his folder to see what he brought home. He DOES NOT like when "other people color" on his paper (i.e. the teacher writes his name on it) or if you move his backpack from his preferred spot in the car while he rides. It must go in one spot, face up, top toward the back. But I can tell that he does like school, and I love how excited he is to see me at the end of his day! :)

He looks so grown up walking in everyday, and we are so excited to see the changes he will make with this opportunity.

Wedding Daze

Another crazy couple of weeks, so I'm skipping Halloween posts. Halloween is SO over.

Saturday, Layla got to play flower girl again! This time for Nathan's cousin Kelly and her new hubby Jonathan. She had a BLAST. The wedding was beautiful, the reception tons of fun, and LP was well!

That's kind of a big deal since she had had a 103 degree temp for the three days before that (and looked like she had oranges growing on either side of her throat). Strep is going around so I assumed that's what it was, but the strep test was negative. They finally decided based on all her symptoms that she had some rare strain of strep that doesn't show up on the test, gave her a very traumatic shot in the keester, and sent us on our way. I don't know who was happier that it worked, her mommy or the bride?

On top of that, Cale has croup. I have pleurisy. My purse was stolen last week (separate blog to follow)... Satan was really trying to knock us down last week! Nice try.